On March 14, I attended a public presentation entitled Islam 101 at Golden West Collegein Huntington Beach, California. The presenter was Nicole Bovey, a convert to Islam and public information officer at the Islamic Institute of Orange County in Anaheim. Bovey also works with the Muslim Speakers Bureau in Orange County (an arm of the Islamic Networks Group).

The presentation was sponsored by GWC professors Kaine Fini (Anthropology) and Communications Professor Kristine Clancy (most of the audience members were her students, and this was part of her class.) The event had been advertised publicly, hence was open to the public. Altogether, there were approximately 50 people present. I videotaped the entire proceeding.

The event was scheduled to run from 6:45-9:30 pm. As it was, it was cut off at about 8:30 by one of the professors (more about that later.) During the event, Professor Clancy called in campus police and she admonished a couple of the people in the audience who had asked pointed questions.

Ms. Bovey's presentation was a very basic and very vanilla presentation of Islam, explaining what Islam is, what it means, who Muslims are, Muslims' worldwide demographic breakdown etc. Bovey's lesson plan, consisting of slides posted on the walls, was about subjects like the 5 pillars of Islam, daily prayers etc. She stated at the outset that she was there to clear up misconceptions about Islam. In fact, the first image on the wall was of a masked man representing a terrorist.

Yet, it was clear later into the presentation that she was not going to get into areas like terrorism or Sharia law. She invited the audience members to raise their hands to ask questions at any point. Bovey was doing fine handling soft, non-controversial questions, but plainly could not handle pointed, uncomfortable questions from a few members of the audience, including myself.

One audience member identified himself as a former Muslim from Egypt, who left Islam and became a Christian pastor. When he began to contradict statements by Bovey, she became uncomfortable. Subsequently, he was approached by Prof. Clancy who asked him to step outside.

He returned a few minutes later. While Bovey was discussing Zakat (Islamic charity giving), another audience member asked her about the categories of Zakat and whether any of them allowed giving to non-Muslims. She was unable to answer the question.

Another man in the audience, a Muslim, stated that there was a separate channel of giving other than Zakat that could be directed to non-Muslims.

The number of individuals receiving benefits from the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), otherwise known as food stamps, declined by more than two million in fiscal year 2017, according to data released by the Department of Agriculture.

In fiscal year 2016, the number of individuals receiving benefits from the food stamp program totaled 44,219,363. In 2017, that number dropped to 42,182,443óa decline of 2,036,920.

Food stamp participation has declined roughly 9 percent over the last four years. In fiscal year 2014, there were 46,663,872 individuals on food stamps.

Historical data show that while the program has expanded greatly over time, participation has declined as of late. The USDA has been tracking data on SNAP participation since fiscal year 1969, at which time average participation in the program stood at about 2,878,000. This means that since then, participation in the program has increased 14-fold.

The data indicate that food stamp participation peaked in year 2013, when there was an average of 47,636,000 individuals benefiting from the program.

As of 2017, the program cost taxpayers about $58 billion with individuals receiving an average benefit of $125.05 per month and households receiving an average benefit of $252.55 per month.

The average benefit per month is $125 per person.

So if you figure 2,000,000 dropped off the food stamp rolls that means the country is saving (2 million x 125 x 12 = 3 billion) $3 billion annually thanks to Trump policies.

That three billion in savings could pay for the Great Trump Border Wall in 6 years!